|
THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
CAPT. STEPHEN B. HANKS,
CHANGES FROM RAFT PILOTING TO STEAMBOAT PILOTING
Sept. 24
This is a natural dividing line in my
river life; the rafting days closing with the running of the
two rafts to Clayton and Dubuque as already mentioned. The
winter of 1854-5 was spent in Albany where I boarded with E.
H. Nevitt. During the winter I made a trip to Galena, and
secured a job as pilot on a new boat lately completed for the
newly organized Minnesota Packet company. The War Eagle was
another newly built boat for the same company. In the line
were also the Nominee, Albambra, Lady Franklin and Dr.
Franklin No. 1 as I now recall.
It might be of interest to know just
how the Dr. Franklin was once sunk and one of the results of
the disaster. The channel makes a sharp turn around an elbow
at one point in Maquoketa slough a few miles above Dubuque,
and high timber along the shore close to the water makes it
impossible to see far ahead. The Dr. Franklin was going
downstream and the Galena going up and both were running at
full speed. As the Dr. Franklin shot past the point the
Galena crashed into her just about the forward end of her
boilers on the starboard side. She sank at once, but
fortunately there was no loss of life and only minor damage to
the Galena. This collision brought out the present U. S. law
that the whistle must be blown on each boat when entering a
narrow or crooked place where the pilots cannot see very far
ahead.
As early as the season permitted we
started out from Galena, Russell Blakely master. My
partner was John Arnold, one of the best pilots I ever
ran with and formerly on the lower river. I think Jim Hunt
was first engineer, he is still living (1907) at savanna;
Wm. McLaughlin was mate and Charles C. Mather
was first clerk. Our first trip was to Read’s landing only as
the ice was not out of Lake Pepin. There were lots of
passengers but not much freight as the passengers and baggage
gave us a pretty good load. We also carried the U. S. mail
and had an express messenger. The I. C. R. R. had not reached
Galena at this time, being held up by a big out (?) at scales
Mound and the gap to Galena was literally black with stages
and team transfers transporting freight and passengers. Those
were busy times for us, our boats being crowded continually.
Early in the season the passengers were mostly Americans but
by June foreigners were coming in crowds, mostly Norwegians
and Swedes, with their peculiar dress, habits, speech and
odor. Galena was a busy hive, being in fact at his time the
principal shipping point of the Northwest.
On our second trip we reached St. Paul
and then began our regular trips a round trip being made every
five days, there being five boats in active service. Our
heaviest leads were on the up trip as this was before the
Northwest had become a shipper of produce. One large item of
our down freight was buffalo hides, furs and other peltries.
These came mainly from the Red River country and were brought
to St. Paul in the famous red River carts, which were
constructed entirely of wood and rawhide. They would squeak
in an alarming fashion and would weave around when under way
looking as though they would collapse at any moment, but they
proved to be very serviceable carts. The harness that was
used on one ox that hauled each car was made of rawhide. The
hides were put in bales about the size of hay bales of today
and seven or eight of these would constitute a load. Trains
of these carts would come frequently, and sometimes it looked
as though the trains were a mile long, each ox being attended
by an Indian or half breed as these skins were nearly all from
Canada and chiefly from the Hudson Bay company. It was cheap
transportation, the Indians requiring but little and oxen
living on the country they came through. The loads would be
transferred direct to the boat or stored in the warehouse of
Borup and Oaks who were our agents at St. Paul.
There was another class of freight
going, but the amount was much greater a couple of years
later, and that was ginseng. A young botanist while cruising
around in Minnesota woods noticed a plant that looked very
much like ginseng. After satisfying himself that his surmise
was correct he had a wood cut made of the plant and got out
circulars describing it and offered fifty-cents a pound for it
delivered at a certain place. These circulars were sent far
and wide and soon shipments were gong to him in large
numbers. The revenue proved of great value to the settlers as
many of them as is usual in a new country, were often in great
need. Shipments were usually in small hog heads or casks
weighing from two hundred to three hundred pounds.
St. Paul at this time was simply a big
overgrown village of the frontier. Minneapolis was making its
first start and I was very familiar with the wild untouched
prairies where now is the great city. These prairies were
covered with luxurious grasses and other growths usually on
prairies of the west and North west, as resin weed, various
forms of sun flowers, great waving fields of phlox, golden
rod, asters and many other different hued flowers in their
seasons. During this season I was at the upper end of our
route every five days and usually had a day to spend as I
pleased. We were carrying many passengers who were traveling
for pleasure and this was a new country and full of novelty
for tourists so, as I came in contact with our passengers on
the way up, it was natural that I be solicited to act as guide
or courier during the leisure day to show them around. St.
Anthony falls, and its environs; the new suspension bridge
over the Mississippi at above the falls; Minnehaha falls, than
in its primitive wildness; Fort Snelling, then one of the best
constructed of forts in the county; were all places of great
interest and could be taken in with the aid of one of the good
horse teams common at that time in a day and it was really an
enjoyable trip. The nearby Indian villages then quite
numerous, were very interesting to the tourists and were
frequently visited. The peculiar custom of burying their dead
in the trees or on high scaffolding always fascinated them.
I enjoyed these trips as I was as much a tourist as I was
royally treated and not allowed to share in any of the expense
of the trips. I also made numerous friends many of whom I
numbered for many years. I was comparatively a young man,
fond of social life and there were many young people among our
passengers and I was particularly interested in the young
ladies. All this was of much value to me at this particular
time when I had not recovered my spirits from the disaster of
he year previous. The total loss of my property had a very
depressing effect upon me and was the main reason for taking
up steamboat piloting instead of rafting. It was hard to keep
from yielding to the “blues” and I felt that this change of
work and the mingling with a different class of people were
the best things that could have happened to me and I soon
began to throw off the burden and assume that cheerfulness
that was my normal condition. |
